A contrarian blog, because the majority is wrong about a lot of stuff.

December 14, 2012

Queen of Versailles

Photo courtesy of Magnolia Pictures. Photo Credit: Lauren Greenfield

Despite the fact that Queen of Versailles has a 95% fresh rating at RottenTomatoes.com, none of the many reviews I’ve read really explain the class issues of the movie which probably underlies why SWPL move reviewers like this movie so much.

The movie started out being about “billionaire” David Siegel’s quest to build the country’s largest private house, loosely modeled after the palace of Versailles.

What none of the mainstream reviews mention is that Siegel may be rich, but he is prole through and through. When a prole becomes super-rich, he doesn’t stop being a prole.

The main character in the documentary is not David, but his trophy wife Jackie who is thirty years younger and if anything she is more prole than her husband. Jackie grew up in a prole family in Binghamton New York, mysteriously graduated from R.I.T. with a degree in engineering (she must have been barely smart enough to graduate), but quickly realized what a boring career that was and moved to New York City and became a model.

As I’ve written before, proles typically are lousy at choosing spouses, and she definitely proves that point because her first rich husband beat her. David, himself, could have chosen a more practical second wife, because Jackie is only good at spending his money on prole crap, but David is a guy who seems to spend a lot of time thinking with his penis. David says at one point that his wife is like having an extra child around the house. Not mentioned in the movie is that David previously lost a sexual harassment lawsuit filed by one of his former employees.

Jackie, who is thirty years younger than her husband, dresses like she’s starring in some MILF porn video (at least before the MILF starts taking off her clothes). Every outfit she wears scandalously shows off her large, presumably surgically augmented, breasts. Jackie has a pack of effeminately-groomed white-haired dogs who have not been very well house trained. And a pack of seven children plus her niece. Jackie has a closet full of hundreds of pairs of shoes. She buys food at McDonalds and shops at Walmart, both places that more upper-class woman would never go near if there was a camera filming them.

It’s interesting to observe how her daughters are very prole in both their sense of style and their body types (in other words they are kind of chunky, reminding me of Bristol Palin but not as pretty). Private school didn’t rub off on them. Maybe it’s because they live in Orlando and not in a rich enclave such as Palm Beach.

These are definitely people that the typical SWPL movie reviewer can look down on and feel superior to, even though they are filthy rich. It further helps the story that Siegel is a well-known supporter of Republicans, which makes him even that much more disgusting. I have to agree that it’s a sad indictment of the Republican Party that the majority of the super-rich vote Democratic, and the ones who vote Republican are classless proles like David Siegel.

David Siegel didn’t become rich by inventing something or manufacturing computers. Nope, he made his money in real estate, specifically in selling time-sharing vacations. The movie shows how his operation works. Proles on vacation in places such as Las Vegas are enticed into viewing a presentation on the time-sharing resort in return for some free gift, and then a member of the prole sales staff applies high-pressure sales tactics to get the prole vacationers to purchase a timeshare they may not even be able to afford, but they only need to put 10% down and the banks finance the rest. It’s a scam-based business model.

The problem with David’s business is that it was heavily leveraged, and when the 2008 financial crisis hit, it didn’t work out so well. I get the impression that David could have given his prized Las Vegas property to the banks at a big loss, and by so de-levering he could have walked away quite rich, but he stubbornly refused to do that and as a result he was unable to continue to finance his opulent lifestyle, including the construction of his Versailles-like house in Orlando. In fact, he has to cut costs by firing all of his servants except for two nannies and a driver, and putting his kids into public school. Jackie doesn’t take well to being put on a budget because she is unable to stop buying crap that she doesn’t need. In contrast, David doesn’t care so much about the crap, he wants to be rich so he can feel superior to other men and have a trophy wife.

34 Comments

"David is a guy who seems to spend a lot of time thinking with his penis."

HS, you sound like a man-hating feminist here. Any man who has working junk is going to "think with his penis". It's perfectly natural, and men who can honestly say they don't think with their penii are low T castrati or broken freaks who like to take it up the butt or watch black men shove it up their wives' butts.

"It’s interesting to observe how her daughters are very prole in both their sense of style and their body types (in other words they are kind of chunky, reminding me of Bristol Palin but not as pretty)."

I wonder if there is a difference between the average hip width and WHR of the classes as you describe, perhaps controlling for BMI (which probably does differ).

re: He's [David Siegel] probably doing better than the filmmakers would have you believe." Rifleman | December 14, 2012 at 10:44 AM

The Bear Market in real Estate has barely started as the first dead cat bounce is still unfolding. The next phase ( of the bear market collapse) will clean Siegal out totally and wash away Obama and his minions.

We were overdue for another prole post. Good work, Siggie. I'm glad you finally go around to the topic of wealthy proles.

"These are definitely people that the typical SWPL movie reviewer can look down on and feel superior to, even though they are filthy rich. It further helps the story that Siegel is a well-known supporter of Republicans, which makes him even that much more disgusting."

They especially hate him because he's wealthy enough that he can act on his social and political preferences independently without having to worry about getting the approval of the bien pensant class.

He says that a scene with her going to a drivethru with a limo was staged. I believe him. How pathetic is this woman that she would willingly stage scenes designed to make her look ridiculous just so she can be in a movie?

Did you watch the movie? The guy is stressed out for two years because he's afraid he's going to have to live as a millionaire instead of a billionaire. The lesson is that human beings are miserable when they have no meaning to their lives, and no, making as much money as possible does not count as a purpose. Whether you're a Christian, Muslim, gang banger or Swipple, humans need some philosophical basis for their life in order to be happy.

The game? Well people like him treat life and others like a game if not anything else. The fact is, he may have money but he has insulting taste, low intelligence, and I'm pretty sure everyone that has met people like him (besides those as conceited, tasteless, and immoral as he is) dislikes him.

The worst part about it is that he has probably fired quite a few people in the past couple of years, yet is still focused on building that huge blemish of a house.

In Florida, I would've expected this to be more of a middle aged Cuban or new to Florida transplant type, but it's an older Jewish guy who made loads of money scamming people in the high churn RE economy. Kind of cliche.

[HS: If you are going to bring up that he's Jewish, one most note that his trophy wife is a shiksa.]

"Did you watch the movie? The guy is stressed out for two years because he's afraid he's going to have to live as a millionaire instead of a billionaire."

You're just jealous.

" The lesson is that human beings are miserable when they have no meaning to their lives, and no, making as much money as possible does not count as a purpose. Whether you're a Christian, Muslim, gang banger or Swipple, humans need some philosophical basis for their life in order to be happy."

Happiness is for losers. Winners are driven, constantly striving to do bigger and better things. Never satisfied. If everyone was placated by simplistic philosophies, we'd still be living in the dark ages.

I've slept with more attractive women than his "trophy wife" but this just proves again that couples match up equally in looks regardless of class. Just look at them both are old and fat albeit with an age difference but at that stage in life age matters less.

"Happiness is for losers. Winners are driven, constantly striving to do bigger and better things. Never satisfied. If everyone was placated by simplistic philosophies, we'd still be living in the dark ages."

He should have hired Tony Montana's interior designer instead of going with the faux Versailles motif. Nothing like loads of Greek columns, red and black color scheme, and a neon "The World is Yours" fountain to display your player status.

Scarface would never have angels on his throne chair ("TM" monogrammed leather all the way!): too much input from the wife.

"HS, you sound like a man-hating feminist here. Any man who has working junk is going to "think with his penis". It's perfectly natural, and men who can honestly say they don't think with their penii are low T castrati or broken freaks who like to take it up the butt or watch black men shove it up their wives' butts."

Roissy, really? Of course men think with our penises, but now when they can slap you with a sexual harassment lawsuit or years ago when a dude could kill you for talking to his girl, it makes sense to keep it in your pants sometimes.

I love how HS hates the proles. I suspect most new money are Republican because they've earned their money and think they deserve it; a lot of old money is Democrat because they think they don't.

I don't think prole tastes=low intelligence. The guy isn't into school, but I bet if you tested him on human relations (or how to manipulate them) he'd come out with flying colors. If you're rich, you can afford alimony. Might as well pump and dump and pay the price--it's just another cost of living. It's lower and middle class men who get ruined. (Wir mussen die feministen ausrotten!)

"HS, you sound like a man-hating feminist here. Any man who has working junk is going to "think with his penis". It's perfectly natural, and men who can honestly say they don't think with their penii are low T castrati or broken freaks who like to take it up the butt or watch black men shove it up their wives' butts."

Pickup talk is annoying. HalfSigma is a man hating feminist for thinking that men should make considered decisions?

CH sounds more like a feminist by harshly insulting people who judge his own gender. Marrying a much younger tacky spend thrift woman is stupid.

This Seigel guy got rich in the typical fashion. By borrowing money to buy something and then waiting for other people to borrow even more money to buy the assets at an inflated price.

There's no real economic benefit to this, but that just makes Siegel similar to other mega rich people.

No doubt her outfits scandalously show her calves and ankles as well. Were you channelling a Victorian matron here?

"David is a guy who seems to spend a lot of time thinking with his penis."

A natural follower of Roissy. Probably got tired of all that thinking with his brain that made him rich; thought he'd try favoring another organ while he still could.

"The wife was hot when she was younger"

Its definitely prole to keep her past her expiry date--reminds me of that prole McCartney, the musician. A real wealthy billionaire playa would get a new "wife" every couple of years after the obligatory pre-nup.

"The very effort to show off one's wealth is clear sign of underclass"

My mother is not much of a prole. She is a the daughter of an Ivy League Professor and she went to HYP for both her undergrad and professional degrees, as did my father. I went to prep school and me and my siblings went to/go to Ivy league schools.

Not that this made them multimillionaires (but according to you having an interesting job is more important than making money for class these days), but they are in the top couple percent.

Yet I shop at Wal Mart occasionally as do both my parents (who are divorced) and my siblings. I'm not alone. Again no one does their grocery shopping, but if you are going to spend a few hundred dollars on the type of crap where quality does not matter (say loading up on cleaning suppplies, under shirts, some stuff to keep things in storage) most people aren't that snobby.

I remember when I first went to college, we went to the Wal Mart 5 miles from campus to load up on the dorm crap, and there were dozens of other freshman with their families, many of whom were from much wealthier families than mine.

This is not to say Seigel and his wife have class, but the fact that they shop at Wal Mart doesn't mean anything.

And also, while I'd prefer an attractive and smart and classy wife, if I could choose between a trophy wife or some ugly yenta with a 145 IQ I'd prefer the former. I can't tell you how many times you meet these wealthy people who seem to be reasonably outgoing and even alpha in some cases, but have ugly wives. In almost every case, they met their wives at their jobs or at College.

Finally, would you please get off this idea that being Republican is prole. Yes in New York City, proles in Stanton Island vote GOP and rich people in the Upper West Side vote Democrat. However, in virtually every other place in the country outside New York, DC, San Francisco, and Hollywood this is not true.

The wealthy suburbs in Chicago, Cleveland, and St. Louis, vote more GOP than the white Union proles in the state. In the South and Texas, they might not vote quite as GOP but it is something like 90% of white proles voting GOP and 75% of wealthy whites.

"If he wanted a much better looking wife he could have one within the hour. She's probably gorgeous in his eyes because proles have bad taste. He probably also likes her personality."

I doubt it. Did you watch the film? A divorce would be the final decimating blow to their finances-- 7 child support payments and alimony, plus half his remaining assets down the drain. It would be cheaper and simpler to get a mistress and see her during a "trip to Dubai." He hides in his office while the wife whines for a kiss (which he refuses) and when the kids walk in for audience with their dad he barely acknowledges them. As it stands he said the kids would need loans to get through college.

The main sin of this family is how boring they are. His son/ business partner (from a previous marriage) is the most compelling personality in the film, which isn't saying much.

I know a very wealthy family with a zillion kids and they too have a messy house full of exotic pets and dog poop. Also none of the kids went to college (which seems to be Mrs. Seigel's wish for her brood)-- this is a good thing? What gives?

Also my BS detector went off in a few scenes. The "what's the name of my driver" had to have been staged plus the "too much electricity" seemed stage too. They just all happened to be mic-ed up for the impromptu squabble?